Vangelis Mitsis

This summer has been one of upheaval for Brazilian legend Rivaldo. For many he dropped off the radar when he left Milan, but those who follow the Champions League closely will have seen him still strutting his stuff at the age of 35 now. Master of the set piece and incisive pass, that left leg may be older and slower but it has lost none of its potency.

In the summer of 2004 he made the move to Greece, to join Champions Olympiacos, here he could still compete at the highest level (the Champions League) and was the focal point of the side. It seemed that he would remain in Piraeus until the end of his playing days.

It all started so well, his status as a former World and European Player of the Year, combined with his talent and illustrious career, guaranteed him the adoration of the Red and White side of the country. In all probability he was and perhaps still is, the most famous and naturally gifted player ever to wear the Olympiacos shirt. Certainly he is the highest profile player ever to move to Greece.

His talent shone out like a beacon over the Greek Super League. In his first season the championship trophy duly arrived, directly through the boot of the Brazilian. Heading into the final league game, Olympiacos needed a win, they were under pressure, with their arch rivals Panathinaikos merely a point behind. A tricky trip to Iraklis (Salonika) was settled through one single Rivaldo goal, much to the delight of the Red and White faithful and the Super League was back in Piraeus.

Rivaldo’s first season also coincided with the best Champions League showing from an Olympiacos side for years. 10 points is usually reckoned to be enough in the Group Stage to assure a team of qualification, but in a group that included Liverpool, it was not to be. In a game that has gone down in the annals of history, Rivaldo scored first at Anfield and the game looked to be over for Liverpool, they needed to score three. With the help of Steven Gerrard, that’s exactly what they did and Rivaldo’s body language that night, along with his team-mates betrayed a sense of disbelief.

The next season came and went, with another championship flowing to the Karaiskaki Stadium. Rivaldo was again integral in the triumph, scoring twice against rivals Panathinaikos as Olympiacos came from behind to win a memorable derby game 3-2. Always giving his best on the big occasion, Rivaldo again conjured up two goals against eventual runners-up AEK Athens in a 3-0 Olympiacos victory. 

Rivaldo was expected to leave Greek football at the end of the 2005/06 season to return for a final farewell in the Brazilian league, but he surprised many by agreeing to sign for another year in Piraeus. His love affair with Thrylos (Olympiacos are nicknamed Thrylos, The Legend, for their amazing tally of 35 league championships) simply would not end. Olympiacos President Socrates Kokkalis commenting at the time “Rivaldo is staying because he is the greatest signing a Greek team has ever made…..that is why we decided to extend our cooperation another year”. His last season with the Greek Champions was perhaps his best, racking up 17 goals in 27 league appearances as Olympiacos claimed their 10th title in 11 years.

He was a legend, the club’s Red Store may well have been known as the Rivaldo Store. It was even muted on more than once occasion that he would become the club’s Director of Football when he finally retired. Plans were rumoured to be in place for him to take the position with Wanderley Luxemburgo, the former Brazil coach, arriving to take charge in the dugout. Rivaldo’s knowledge of the Brazilian game and contacts would see a steady stream of young talents arriving.

They say a day is a long time in football, but a month is even longer and what a difference that final month of the 2006/07 season made.

News broke on the 11th May that Rivaldo had called a press conference for the next day. The Brazilian’s sat down to face the media looking visibly shaken, even appearing to cry at one point and announced he had to leave the club due to failing to agree terms over a new contract. Futhermore, he put the blame squarely in the President’s court. “The President disappointed me and I cannot stay where I am not happy”. Rivaldo stated he agreed verbally a deal to stay on at the same money for another year, but when the contract was forthcoming, it was only 50% of his current wages. “He did not keep his word, it’s nothing to do with money, it’s a question of dignity” Rivaldo stated. He even went as far as to say he had never encountered such treatment during his entire career. Kokkalis has countered saying Rivaldo was offered a deal on the same money for another year.

Who to believe? What is certain is that Rivaldo does not need the money and he followed up his announcement by donating the half a million Euro’s Olympiacos owed him to charity. It’s a shame it ended like this. Rivaldo obviously loved being at Olympiacos and to argue he wasn’t performing on the pitch would be hard to justify. In football, history has a strange way of repeating itself. How often do we see ex-managers drawn against the team they have just left in competitions? How often do players return to haunt their former clubs? It has almost become a rule in football, that fate will throw up the unexpected with alarming regularity. In football, opportunities for revenge are plentiful and so it was in the Champions League, when Milan had an opportunity to avenge that Istanbul defeat by Liverpool barely 24 months later.

As the Rivaldo drama was unfolding in sunny Athens, my mind was drawn to a strikingly similar incident that took place in the Dutch city of Amsterdam at the end of the 1982-83 season. Ajax were in the ascendency and had just won their fifth Eredivisie title in seven years, helped in no small part by former European Footballer of the Year Johan Cruyff. Cruyff had returned from 3 years spent in the fledgling North American Soccer League. He had always been happiest at Ajax and in Holland, they were his club. But at the end of the 1982-83 season after helping the club to the Eredivisie title, inexplicably, Ajax decided not to offer him a new contract. A very angry Cruyff then shocked Dutch football by signing for Ajax’s arch rivals Feyenoord. A greater sin could not have been imagined.

Here we were 24 years later, and an equally angry former European Footballer of the Year, Rivaldo, was crossing town to join Olympiacos’ rivals AEK Athens. Olympiacos supporters who aren’t familiar with the Cruyff story might want to look away now, because what happened next was the ultimate in player revenge.

Feyenoord had been in something of a lean spell in terms of trophies when Cruyff arrived, not having won the title for a decade. There had only been one Dutch Cup to cheer since that last championship. The idea that they might threaten Ajax in that 1983/84 season was somewhat far fetched, but Cruyff had other ideas.

A Cruyff inspired Feyenoord stormed to the 1983-84 title, adding the Cup as well for good measure. 11 goals in 33 appearances was the perfect repost to an Ajax side who thought he was finished. The only blot on the landscape was an 8-2 drubbing at Ajax, but who cares for individual results when you have the last laugh?

AEK Athens have had to go longer without winning the title, their last coming in 1994. Runners-up to Olympiacos last season, they sorely lacked that extra bit of quality, that special player who can make and score goals out of nothing……a Rivaldo type player. And make no mistake, Rivaldo has extra motivation now, revenge and the only way to achieve this is to help AEK take the title. “If we are talking about dreams then I would say I would like to become champion with AEK” he said on his official unveiling.

AEK have already started the league season well with two wins out of two. But with Olympiacos sure to be towards the top of the table derby matches will certainly hold the key and Rivaldo’s performance in Greek derby matches has always been exceptional.

History has a strange way of repeating itself in this beautiful game and if Rivaldo stands holding the Super League trophy aloft in May next year, clad in an AEK jersey, maybe, somewhere in Holland, Johan Cruyff will be watching with a smile on his face and a glass in his hand, raising a toast to that special feeling, revenge. 

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